


Thoughts

by ReptileRepresentative



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Based of Steven Universe Song, Everyone Get's a Hug, Everyone Needs A Hug, Everyone is tired, Gen, Let Them Sleep, Shiro is Tired, i think
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-08
Updated: 2016-09-08
Packaged: 2018-08-13 19:53:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7984114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReptileRepresentative/pseuds/ReptileRepresentative
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Paladins go through a training exercise.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Thoughts

**Author's Note:**

> It's based off this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHg50mdODFM

The Paladins laid in a circle, lightly chatting as they recovered from their recent training exercise. Lance, who had flopped onto the floor the moment the room stopped spawning robots, sat up and strained his back, letting out a groan. 

"How much more this? I'm tired already, I think we've trained enough," he complained, leaning back onto his hands placed behind him. 

"You're giving in already? Why am I not surprised?" Keith said with a laugh. A small smirk crept onto Lance's face. 

"Know what? I think I'm getting my second wind," he got to his feet and took a fighting stance. "C'mon, you and me, let's go. I'll kick your ass." 

"Language," Shiro mumbled, still sprawled out on the ground. 

"No way in hell you could beat me," Keith shot back. 

"Language," Shiro said, louder this time. Pidge snorted. 

"Fuck the police," she said under her breath, though everyone managed to catch it. 

"Language!" Shiro sat up, nearly shouting. Everyone snickered. 

"Great work Paladins," a familiar voice boomed over the training room. Everyone looked toward the observation deck holding Coran and Allura. "We have one more training exercise for today." A groan came from Lance. 

"Hey, it's less than normal, cheer up buddy," Hunk chimed in. Lance sighed, nodded, and sat back down. 

"That's because it's new and it'll take a lot of your energy and focus," This time, everyone groaned. New exercises were always difficult and were usually painful. Everyone got to their feet, wobbling slightly. "Oh, there's no need for that. Please, sit down." 

They obeyed, murmuring to each other. A mixture of confusion, suspense, and a bit fear hung in the air. 

"Is it another mental one? You know I'm garbage at those," Pidge asked loudly. The door to the training room opened and Allura walked in. 

"It is, but I'm sure you'll do fine. I'll be guiding you through it," she said, walking over to Paladins and taking a seat. She cleared her throat. "A large portion of controlling Voltron is understanding each other. This exercise is to help you learn what makes your fellow Paladin's tick." 

Uncomfortable glances and raised eyebrows were shared amongst the group. After a few moments of silence, Pidge spoke. "Princess, how are we going to go about doing this? Share our feelings together through a mind link?" Allura smiled. 

"No, this is going to be different than what you're used to," Allura closed her eyes, folded her hands, and took a deep breath, silently prompting the others to do the same. "Here in darkness, everything's okay. Hear the sounds of the ship and let them fade away. 

Here comes a thought." 

 

The Paladins opened their eyes with a small gasp. They instantly realized something was off. The combination of the training deck being replaced with a landscape made purely from cold gradients and the fact that everyone felt like one person and also five people threw them off completely. A glance down told them they had red and green arms as well as blue and yellow legs. Their torso was black and by what they could tell from their nose, their face was black as well. 

"Um," Their voice was layered, like several people speaking at once. "Allura? What's going on?" 

She didn't respond. Volton looked to the left to find Hunk and Pidge. Hunk was walking over to Pidge, lips moving but no words coming out. Pidge was sitting down, furiously typing something on her laptop. She waved him off, also speaking silent words. Hunk frowned and shook his head, saying something else and squatting down next to Pidge. A few pure white butterflies fluttered out from nowhere, attaching themselves to either of them. Hunk glanced at them, a bit worried, but then instantly took his eyes off of them to help Pidge with her's. Even as he pointed them out, she took no notice them, even as they nestled into her, clearly making her uncomfortable. Hunk's picked at him a bit, making him wince. He still attempted to shoo away Pidge's to little avail. 

A slight twinge made Voltron glance to their right. It showed Lance and Keith, mutely yelling at each other. They weren't just playfully bickering like normal, no, this was a real fight. The soundless argument started to become more emotional. It was clear they were just shouting insults at this point, but they were apparently damn good insults. Keith shouted something, but then instantly looked like he wanted to take it back. Lance shrunk back, a hurt expression overtaking his face. Keith opened his mouth, but then closed it and walked away. 

Butterflies came fluttering after. 

They darted across Keith's eyes and danced along his body, weaving in between his legs, climbing up his arms. He was clearly agitated by this and swatted at them. They shrunk back slightly but then came right back to bug him. He was obviously getting angry with them. 

Lance's were far calmer, softly swooping in, few in numbers and soft in touch. He almost gave a sad smile before he saw one split from another. In fact, they all did, doubling the amount there was. The floated up slightly. They did it again and again, repeating the process until there was an uncountable amount swirling far above Lance's head. The huge mass of tiny butterflies descended upon him. As Voltron watched, some butterflies disappeared, leaving behind almost-big ones. Only a small itch from Blue told them that the butterflies didn't go and they were still swirling around him, invisible. 

Something made Voltron snap their head to the front of them. Shiro. A few butterflies surrounded them. He calmly ushered them away. A slight pang of jealousy ran throughout Voltron when seeing how easily he dealt with the butterflies. 

That was before they spotted larger butterflies coming at him. They weren't too big, maybe about half the size of Shiro's head, but they were clearly bigger than the usual ones. He got those to leave too, though it was more difficult. Some still stuck on, like parasites. 

More largish butterflies came fluttering down, all increasing is size bit by bit. Eventually, Shiro stopped trying to swat them away, letting them build up as he tried to ignore them. Hunk turned a concerned head, as did Keith. Shiro shot them a few silent words and a look that Voltron knew all too well. It was the look they got when everyone was scared about a mission. The look when one of them had a problem and Shiro would be happy to listen. A look that melted away your stress and made you stop worrying. 

Some butterflies detached themselves from Shiro, forming together. He ignored them. They built more and more. He ignored them. They got overwhelmingly large, impossible to ignore, silently flapping behind him. Shiro whipped around. 

The butterfly showed a man with ginger hair being shot straight through the chest. 

And like that, Voltron broke. 

 

The Paladins laid groaning on the ground. Allura calmly opened her eyes with a deep breath. She stood up a stretched. 

"Oh, come on now! It couldn't have been that bad," she said with a laugh. 

"What do you mean? Weren't you watching us?" Shiro asked, sprawled on the floor, similar to the rest of his team. 

"No, I wasn't paying attention. I had to keep focused on keeping you all together. I apologize for the slip up breaking you apart. We'll try it again tomorrow," There was no response. No groaning, no whines, no attempts to flirt their way out of the situation. Just silence save for the heavy breathing and the ship's ever-present buzzing. "Well, I suppose we could take a few days off from training. This no doubt put a lot of mental strain on you." There were a few quiet sighs of relief. 

 

The next day, everyone pretended like the training never happened. 

It wasn't easy. Lance and Keith's bickering lasted too long to be serious and it was more half-compliments and childish name-calling. Pidge was obviously trying not to spend too much time on their laptop. Hunk spent all day cooking. Finding new recipes for the alien foods the picked up. Learning what was poisonous and what wasn't. Shiro was trying to always be busy. Chatting with everyone. Washing his Lion. Washing everyone's Lion. Checking the security. Checking it again. Making sure his arm isn't malfunctioning while also not thinking about the torture that came with it. Making sure his shield's working properly. Washing everyone's Lion again. 

Allura knew something was off. 

"Do you think I was too hard on them during training?" she asked Coran, who was tapping away at the control panel. 

"You had no control over it. You were merely keeping them together," he answered. 

"Were they together for too-" he slapped his hand over her mouth. 

"Princess, I'm sure it's fine. The Paladins are most likely thrown off by the training. The former Paladins always acted strangely after the exercise. I think they weren't together long enough to fully work out their problems. It's not your fault." He took his hand off her mouth and went back to tapping away at the panel. 

 

The Paladin's sat in a circle, too exhausted to speak. They just let the quiet consume them. 

"Great work Paladins." A familiar voice boomed over the training room. Everyone glanced toward the observation deck. "We have one more exercise today. You should remember it from the last session." A groan erupted from the whole group. 

Allura walked in and took a seat. She closed her eyes, folded her hands, and took a deep breath, silently prompting the others to do the same. "Here in darkness, everything's okay. Hear the sounds of the ship and let them fade away. 

The thought returns." 

 

Voltron opened their eyes again. The landscape. The feeling of being the same and being separate. It washed over them once again. A glance to the left. Hunk and Pidge same as before, Hunk silently worrying and Pidge silently not caring. It almost hurt to look at to see both themselves and their friends in pain. The longer they watched, the more they wanted it to stop, wanted the upsetness to stop. Wanted the clear sadness and neglect to their problems to stop. They wanted it to make it all cease to be, nonexistent, no longer there. There were only two people who could do it. 

Pidge finally turned to Hunk, showing the bags under her eyes. Showing how little she was taking care of herself. When she did that, Hunk did the same thing. She pushed the laptop off of her and pulled Hunk in for a hug and there may have and probably was crying. The butterflies were still there but now they didn't seem so uncomfortable. Pidge pointed out Hunk's and Hunk pointed out Pidge's and the two just kinda sat there for a bit, talking about their worries, their words still not quite projecting sound but still heard. 

Voltron looked over to the right. Same as last time. Keith being aggravated with the butterflies. Lance still being battered around by the few visible ones and all the other invisible ones. 

Keith was getting more and more irritated. Lance refused to accept all the butterflies there. Lance looked over to Keith, seeing him so frustrated by the butterflies. He frowned and walked over, tapping his teammate on the shoulder. Keith snapped his head up to look at Lance, looking like he was about to shoot an insult. Lance asked Keith something before he could get a word in. Keith shook his head and looked defensive, opening his mouth. Lance put a finger to his lips. He used his other hand to point to one of Keith's butterflies. Keith nodded, no longer trying to sneak any words in. Lance tried to shoo away a few of the butterflies. It didn't work perfectly, but some did leave. 

Keith then proceeded to point at one of Lance's. Lance picked it up and talked about it. Another one of the butterflies became visible once again. Keith pointed to it. Lance froze, looking at it. He shook his head, but Keith was persistent. Soon enough, he had another reappearing. And another. And another. Lance stood still in shock, not really knowing what to do. It wasn't long before it all came crashing down, a thousand tiny butterflies swarming around Lance. Lance was clearly doing his best to not look at them, not notice them, not to let them hurt him, it's fine it's fine you're fine they're fi- 

Keith pulled him into a hug. Lance was frozen for a few moments. Eventually, his hands snuck their way around Keith's chest. His legs gave out and the two sunk to the floor, and there may have and probably was crying. 

Voltron snapped their head forward. Shiro. 

He was still being terrorized by the giant butterfly. Tons of different traumatic experiences flicked by, flashing from his arm to the slavery to the beatings to the corpse pit and more. He was holding his head, tears streaming down his face. There was no strong, fatherly leader. There was Takashi Shirogane, a twenty-two-year-old pilot that graduated from the Garrison and left on a space trip that went horribly wrong. Takashi Shirogane that spent a year being tortured and now had to lead a group to save the universe even though he was in his only early twenties and should be out, doing stupid things with his stupid friends. He wasn't just The Black Paladin, their leader, their parental figure. 

At that moment, Voltron realized that he was just a person. He wasn't a god among men. He was young and dumb and tired. They all were.  
So they all grouped around him. They gave him hugs and maybe even a kiss or two, being totally informal to how you would treat your commander because he wasn't their commander. He was their friend. 

Lance, Keith, Pidge, Hunk, and Shiro all laid around circle together, watching the colors shift around, watching the butterflies fly away. There were still some still clinging to the Paladins, but no one was really worried. They were just passing thoughts.


End file.
